Augoeides

About Me

I am a Thelemite and ritual magician also known as Ananael Qaa who has been practicing for more
than 25 years. I have a degree in experimental psychology from Saint
Olaf College, a well-regarded Lutheran school that has a surprisingly
good collection of Aleister Crowley's work, and have been involved in
Ordo Templi Orientis since 1995 and Masonry since 1997.

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Thursday, September 8, 2016

Look at that Parking Lot!

When Ken Ham opened his Creation Museum, it drew far more people than expected the first year. After that, attendance dropped off dramatically. My personal theory is that many of those visitors were of the "point and laugh" variety, only there to see how awful the place really was. Once they saw it, they had no reason to go back.

Ham clearly hoped that his new Ark Encounter attraction would post similar numbers its first year, but so far it looks as if few people are actually visiting. This is my personal theory again, but there's not really that much "point and laugh" potential in a replica of Noah's Ark. It's not like it's a giant diarama of Jesus riding a dinosaur or something.

Ken Ham loves to boast about the people from all over the world visiting the Ark Encounter in Williamtown, Kentucky. However, there is very little evidence people are actually visiting.

It’s been estimated that the park needs somewhere around 5,600 visitors per day to meet their 2 million visitor goal they set and promised to the town. On opening weekend, they didn’t seem to average more than 5,000 a day and it seems it’s only getting worse.

New drone footage, posted to Facebook says it was taken on August 28, a Sunday at noon, so what should be a very busy theme park day. The footage shows the entire Ark Encounter parking lot and there are only a few dozen cars there.

Ham spent an enormous amount of money building this thing, and a number of folks have already pointed out that if he had given that much money to charities instead, it could have helped a whole lot of people. Helping people, though, doesn't seem to be what the Creation Museum is about at all.

Instead, it's a giant temple to ignorance, not just of science but of scripture too. Ham claims to be a Biblical literalist, but then argues that the interpretation-heavy and not-at-all-literalist Ussher chronology represents the only possible timeline for the Genesis narrative - even though, among other things, it predicted the world would end sixteen years ago.

There's an old joke that a boat is hole in the water into which one throws money. Apparently, the same principle can be true even when your boat is a hole in the ground.

The Pathless Void

Mastering the Great Table

Mastering the Great Table, my book on working Enochian magick with John Dee's Great Table or Watchtowers, is now available from Pendraig Publishing in paperback, Kindle, and ebook editions. Buy now and help support Augoeides!

Mastering the Mystical Heptarchy

Mastering the Mystical Heptarchy, my book on working Enochian magick with John Dee's Heptarchia Mystica, is now available from Pendraig Publishing in paperback, Kindle, and ebook editions. Buy now and help support Augoeides!